Real hospital data doesn’t quite match government spin

The country’s DHBs are on average falling shy of five out of six targets set by the Ministry of Health – but one target has seen a 14 per cent increase over the latest quarter.

In the January to March period this year, only the improved access to elective surgery target was met, with DHBs on average increasing the volume of elective surgeries by 4000 discharges per year.

However in many cases targets were close to being met, and a small number of underperforming DHBs could bring the average down for the rest.

Compared with last quarter, half of the target categories – reduced emergency department stays, faster cancer treatment and better help for smokers to quit – remained the same.

Some nice wins in other areas however

Increased immunisation dropped one percentage point compared with last quarter and improved access to elective surgery rose by one percentage point.

The biggest increase was seen in the raising healthy kids target, which rose from 72 per cent to 86 per cent.

The target is for 95 per cent of children identified as obese in the Before School Check programme will be offered a referral to a health professional.

Setting targets is always good. And failing to meet them isn’t bad in and of itself. Until things start going backwards.

Increased immunisation for eight-month-olds was only achieved in the South Canterbury district, however most other DHBs were only a few percentage points shy, bringing the performance to 93 per cent – just shy of the 95 per cent target.

Nearly half of all DHBs were meeting the target for emergency department wait times of under six hours and half were within four percentage points of meeting it.

Only the Waikato DHB lagged behind, reaching 88 per cent of the 95 per cent target.

Despite the target not being met, it was reported earlier this month that the initiative has likely saved thousands of lives, labelled an “extraordinary” finding by medical researchers.

– NZ Herald

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. And when he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet, and as a result he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist that takes no prisoners.